The Psychopath Test

In chapter 4 of The Psychopath Test, Rohnson learned how to detect psychopaths in society by using a checklist created by Bob Hare. The chapter begins with Rohnson attending a conference put on by Bob in which Bob describes the checklist he has created and how it can be used to detect psychopaths. Bob explained that the first test he ever was conducted was an electric shock test in prison. It proved that psychopaths had short memory and didn't have anxiety. Not long after he started his electric shock tests, electric shocking was outlawed. Bob was forced to find a new way to determine who was normal and who wasn't, so he created a check list. Rohnson went to the seminar as a skeptic Bob's system, but after watching interviews and case studies with different psychopaths, he became a devout believer of Bob's PCL-R Checklist.
Chapters 4 and 5 were very interesting chapters about how to detect a psychopath in society. As I was reading chapter 5, I was wondering if they were going to talk about Adolf Hitler at all, and examine whether or not he was a psychopath. He seemed to have a lot in common with Toto. In chapter 4, when Bob was explaining his electric shock technique, it was creepy to read that psychopath's were not scared of the pain at all, and they would forget about it right after it was over. It helped explain why most psychopaths would commit crimes over and over again. One of my favorite parts of the chapter was the fact that John applying the checklist to himself and make up excuses as to why his actions were ok if aligned with one of the checklist characteristics.

"Pychopaths Dream in Black and White"

In "Psychopaths Dream in Black and White" John Rohnson explores the psychotherapy methods of Elliot Becker to examine whether or not his naked therapy sessions were affective in curing psychopaths. John interviewed several people who Oak Ridge hospital, where most of the research an therapy sessions took place. The therapy sessions were extremely long and sometimes even days. They consisted of nudity, screaming and crying while the patients expressed feelings, LSD use, sleep depravation, and eating through tubes on the walls. While Elliot was conducting his therapy sessions, some of the patients seemed to have positive results and appeared to be cured. They even released a few patients after they were considered mentally same. But the patients that were released actually had become worse during their sessions. The committed crimes including murder and child molestation. 80% of the patients that had undergone Elliot's psychotherapy had actually becomes worse. Ron Johnson's researched proved that psychotherapy was not an affective method to cure psychopaths.

This chapter was extremely interesting to me. Besides the fact that I had to read about Mary's feces obsession, I felt as if I learned a lot about psychopaths and techniques used to help them. Although I knew some before I read this book, I never knew anything about therapy that they would under go to try and 'cure' them of their illness. It also scared me to think that psychopaths were released after undergoing this extremely obscure therapy. It proved one of the points made in the second chapter, that psychopaths truly are manipulative and can pretend to be normal.

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